


On The Edge

by veridium_bye



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: BrancaDoodles, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Sweet Fluff, commission, other person's oc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 08:30:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17845943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veridium_bye/pseuds/veridium_bye
Summary: A one-shot ficlet for @BrancaDoodles for her wonderful Inquisitor, Jodianna Lavellan, and Josephine Montilyet.The prompt given: "Ah! There's an insect in my chambers!"





	On The Edge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beryllium_Astatine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beryllium_Astatine/gifts).



> This was a wonderful fic to write for an equally wonderful person. Thank you for the commission and for the opportunity to get to know Jodianna and her relationship with Josephine; it was an amazing challenge to capture such a romantic, funny, and jubilant scene.

Mornings were always the best. Brief, intermittent daydreams where life was still far away and the joys were visceral. Their potency only increased the more Josephine elected to sleep with her rather than respect private boundaries. It mesmerized her and made her laugh all the same: the way her eyes narrowed every time Jodianna had to convince her to allow a lapse in orderliness, the way she looked away to measure if such a choice was correct. A meticulous woman she was. 

Jodianna had convinced her of it the night before, and her reward was the privilege of waking up and seeing her face on the other side of the bed. Josephine Montilyet was many things: Chief Ambassador to the Inquisition, formerly an Ambassador to Orlais, daughter of Antivan nobility -- and, evidently, someone who slept alternatively on her side or her stomach. Her face pressed against the pillow linen, fingers curled against her chin. 

And she snored. Not how you’d think someone would snore, and not consistently. Ever so often, she inhaled hoarsely with a low hum on her tongue. It was the most endearing kind of snoring Jodianna had ever known; even when she was curled up against her and doing it directly in her ear. There were worse things to wake up surprised by. 

Jodianna had spent the better part of an hour that morning in an out of sleep, always searching her out to remind herself she was still there. Who would put it past Josephine to be able to vanish in smoke or under the sheets like she had read a book in the library concerning magical parlor tricks and mastered it for herself? Certainly not the woman who loved her. 

Her vision grew clearer with each blink, and the details of her all came out pristine: her loose, black curls strewn across her pillow and over her shoulders. Her face relaxed and still, lips parted ever-so-slightly. A fine, perfect, and all-together dormant morning, until something moving caught her eye in the ripples of bedsheets: something dark and crawling, small but not dismissable. 

Oh, blasted, it was a spider. Of all things, a damn spider. It couldn’t have been a trick of her sleep-deprived mind, or a ball of lint gone astray. No, no, a spider. Of course. 

Jodianna’s heart lapsed in its rhythm, quickening first and then slowing. Her throat went dry as she panicked about what first to do. Should she just leave it to go on its swell way? It was practically going for a stroll along Josephine’s waist. Every stop and change in direction made her dread grow. _Oh, come now, just crawl away. Just go. Go, shoo, go hang off something._

She clutched her folded arms under her cheek and chin, her legs curling up tighter underneath her. Slowly, discrete as if the little creature would find out she was awake and choose her to be its mountain. 

Josephine was as still and quiet as a sculpture then, making it all the worse. If it got feisty and crawled into her hair or her face and she woke up to Jodi just staring at her like she had morphed into Darkspawn, what then? No, this was a time to be brave. She was the Inquisitor, for heaven’s sake. She had one of the worst and most dangerous day jobs in Thedas. Surely she could spare her lover the fright of waking up to a spider walking a country mile across her nose. 

The little arachnid was booking it onto Josephine’s shoulder, and that is when Jodianna knew she had to strike. As she bit her lip and fought off the preeminent cringe she pulled herself up and reached a hand. Ugh, it was going to touch her. She was going to touch it. Glancing at Josephine in her periphery, though, she knew it was a small sacrifice to make. 

She sat up slowly and cupped her hands around the spider’s area as it stopped, obviously finding itself corralled. A brief stalemate while she ensured Josephine wasn’t disturbed, before she closed in on the intruder with the edges of her palms. The little monster flinched and shook a leg, clearly not expecting a detour. Maker, if it was one of those bitey ones…

Oh, oh no, it was not cooperating. Sticking in place and clearly not going along with the program, a standoff ensued: one that would have probably gone for far too long had Josephine not suddenly stretched her legs out. It scared Jodianna off, and she promptly retracted her hands and buried them clasped underneath the sheets and between her own thighs. A soft moan escaped Josephine’s throat, and soon after she began blinking her eyes open. Jodianna bit down so hard on the side of her lip she nearly took a bite out of herself. 

“Mm, good morning amor,” Josephine mumbled as she rubbed the side of her face. She furrowed her brow as her eyes adjusted to the morning light. So unassuming and so calm. 

Jodianna’s gaze bounced between her face and the spider that still clung to the sheets now on the valley of the side of her waist. The little bastard was simply cozy and waiting to be discovered. How was she to tell her? Had this gone on for too long and too dramatic? Never. This was the correct amount of panic. 

“Josie, um,” Jodianna started, letting her hand reaching toward her up and over the blanket, “can you...can you just be still for a moment?”

Josephine blinked her eyes wide and looked across the pillows at her, her fingers falling away from her face. “Jodianna, why do you look so unnerved?”

“I am not unnerved, I just…”

“...You...just…?

Jodianna smiled crookedly, trying to cover her ass. “It’s just that you are so beautiful, and...and I just want to absorb it all. Now, uh, just close your…” her words tapered off as she lightly brushed her fingers over Josephine’s forehead and down over her eyes. Josephine herself did not appreciate the gesture.

“Agh! Jodianna!” Josephine slapped her hand away gently, “what is the matter?”

“Nothing, I…” Jodianna’s eyes spoke more where her mouth wouldn’t. Luckily for her Josephine had no reason to suspect what was afoot. With any luck she would slide out of bed and the spider would become as irrelevant as the current weather in Seheron. 

Josephine reached her arm out from under the sheets and rustled around onto her back. It all became slow motion: her chin tucking down to look out, the spider moving to keep up with her and stay alive, the white noise of cringing between Jodianna’s ears. Josephine scrunched her nose and blinked, and then she blinked.

A shrill squeak, following by flying bedsheets and limbs. Legs first, then it all became a blur of linen. Jodianna scurried back up against the headboard, part of her wanting to jump ship, the other save Josephine from the calamity. With a swift but clumsy roll off the edge of the bed, Josephine disqualified herself from the duel for bed space with the tiny arachnid. 

_Oh no, oh no no, I screwed up, oh no…_

A thud and another shrill sound from over the edge of the bed and Jodianna lept forward onto her hands and knees, the cold air briskly sending shivers up her limbs. 

“Josephine! Josie, are you okay?!” she asked, peering over and seeing her laying flat on her back, having pulled half the undersheet with her that was now tangled around her waist. Hair and arms covering her face. 

Josephine groaned and huffed air, sending curls up into the air. 

“...I take that as a...maybe?”

“There was a spider on me, and you did not think to warn me?”

Jodianna grimaced, shoulders bunching to her ears. “Well, you see, I tried to do the thing where you save the spider and keep the beautiful woman from waking up, and...well, it…”

Clearly that testimony would not be satisfactory. As Josephine brushed her hair from her face, revealing her furrowed brow and pouting mouth, Jodianna was caught between a rock and a lustful place. She was so mesmerizing when angry. It was a trap built-in and merciless. Everything else around them melted away but it wasn’t necessarily out of wistful bliss. 

She cleared her throat. “You...well, I, uh, hm...”

Josephine smirked drily, letting her arm fall roughly onto the rug beneath her. “Is there nothing you have to say for yourself but turn your own cheeks red?”

Oh no, busted. Again. Another chilling draft swept around Jodianna’s shoulders -- or was that the nerves? Either way, as she pulled one of the blankets up around her and crawled over, she felt the need to explain more but with words she could not tape together to save her life. In their place, she reached and helped Josephine sit up. With a gentle, cautious smile, she gestured to wrap the blanket around her. Only with the Lady’s permission of course. 

“Ugh,” Ambassador Montilyet sighed as she made herself decent, rising to her feet just enough to sit on the edge of the bed. 

In her wake, Jodi could see the scrambling of a tiny being on the carpet. The spider, against all odds, had endured Josephine’s clumsy fall. Perhaps size did matter, and being small meant less surface area to have vulnerable to attack. Maybe the little menace should be a source of notes for her and Dagna to inspire their experiments. 

She rolled out of bed with a sincere grimace, leaning over and grabbing an empty chalice from the nearest end table. 

“As much as I hate these little things,” she said aloud, crouching and placing the chalice opening in front of its path as it crawled, “maybe it doesn’t deserve to die on account of my foolishness.”

That time the spider complied with the plan, crawling into the chalice with ease. Perhaps it had grown tired of resisting compromise, or maybe it was ready for a worthy demise. In either case, Jodi would ensure it would be rewarded. Squirming a bit with her shoulders as she put her palm over the cup, she raced over to the balcony door. The jitters of risking skin touching a spider of all things was a risk worth rushing for. 

But dammit, it was cold out. Too cold for a woman in a sheer tunic shirt draped over her and nothing else. As soon as she was on the balcony she hunched over and shivered, cursing under her breath. It was enough to make her hold the chalice closer to her and forget something creepy hid in its contents. She looked around furiously for a spot to dump it, whining more and more with frustration. 

“Is everything alright?” Josephine called from behind, back in bed. The warm, safe, comfortable bed. Ugh, the things she did for love and pacifism. 

Jodianna groaned with harmless aggravation. “It’s fine! We’re fine! Just..!” she bit her lip and went for the rail, tipping the chalice over with her arm as outstretched as possible to keep the liberated spider far from her as an option of landing. She shook the cup voraciously to-and-fro. If there was any wine left in it its bone dry cup, there wouldn’t be after she had her way with it. 

The bastard wasn’t giving in. No spider, no wine, no nothing. Just shaking a chalice, in the morning fog, when she could be doing a dozen other things. His amenability had limits. Maybe he did have a death wish. 

“Ugh! Come on!” she cried with gritted teeth. Don’t make me regret being nice. It’s not healthy. 

“Are you sure, darling?” Josephine again, but louder, closer. 

“Yes! Yes I promise! I--” Jodianna made the fatal mistake of looking over her shoulder briefly while she was assuring her. For, in her glimpse of vision, there was Josephine: standing poised against the archway with the blanket she had taken draped beautifully and messily around her figure. Her hair bunched onto one shoulder with strands flying loose in the morning uptick of wind. 

Oh, shit. _She’s...she’s…_

“Jodianna, be careful!” Josephine’s warning cracked through her distracted adulation. Blinking, she came to at the sight of Josephine reaching out her hand, eyes wide and brow raised.

“What? I’m--oh, no!” Jodianna turned and scrambled. There was no chalice, no sign of its existence anywhere. Over the rail was at least a two story drop off a cliffside. How did she manage to let it slip and not notice? There was a whole cup in her hand, for heaven’s sake?

She put her hands on the stone rail and peered over, heaving forward so much that her feet lifted off the floor. Looking for something that obviously fell was useless, but what if? What if she could just…

“No!” Josephine came up behind her, wrapping her arm around her waist and the other clasping her shoulder. “It is alright! It was an accident!”

“I can’t believe it!” Jodi lamented as she was pulled back. “I went through all that...all that…” she breathed, waving her hand out towards the overlook. 

“...Trouble?”

Trouble. Yes, trouble. Trouble, or causing a soldier down below a headache. Or disturbing a grazing group of rams nearly to death. The titular nature of it all didn’t matter. Jodianna came around when her feet were back firmly on the stone beneath her. She folded her arms and pouted shamelessly. It was too early for dignity after caring so much for something so insignificant. It helped to be in Josephine’s arms, though, where she could feel comforted for doing so. 

“I was going to say...well, trouble is a better word for it.”

There was nothing more to say that would make it all somehow better. An entirely peaceful morning swept up in the calamity of arachnid sympathy. Maybe Josephine had rubbed off on her more than she knew. Maybe her talent for a non-violent approach had inspired her in more ways than just the Council room. 

“Ugh,” Jodianna laid her head back, eyes toward the sky. “I’m sorry, Josephine.”

Josephine smirked, head jerking back. “What on earth have you to apologize for?”

“I don’t know. Just. You’re so much more adept at this than I am.”

“Adept at what, exactly?”

“...well, handling delicate situations. Sleeping. Not losing the fine china.”

Josephine bit back a smile, though in her cheeks it was telling. Jodianna took it in, along with the scant freckles on the bridge of her nose that were so slight, but so unforgettable once you knew them. 

“Mi amor, this may come as no surprise to you,” Lady Montilyet said as she placed a hand on Jodianna’s cheek. “But my affairs do not usually involve trapping and releasing small creatures onto safer harbors. Much as you tease the Orlesians’ flare for being decrepit.”

She couldn’t resist grinning, even in the soreness of her ego. Leaning her face into her touch, she rolled her eyes with impatience for her own self and nothing more. Now nothing was in the way of the day getting started: no simple silence, no slow-paced seduction. Perhaps, though, that was just the way she liked it deep down. Maybe it wasn’t so missed, the tranquility of normality. Because at the end of the line, no matter what she did or how she messed it up, in Josephine’s eyes she found that it was all a reflection of something worthwhile. Thus, she believed it the entirety of herself, and all was well. 

“Hmm,” she hummed, still a humble ache in her tone. “They are extraordinarily decrepit. I wish I could launch half of them in a cup over the balcony edge.”

Josephine scoffed playfully. “By accident, surely.”

“Oh, pft, of course,” she tilted her chin, hands going up. “Never anything else.”

Josephine giggled a bit as her arms smoothly went up her sides and around her chest, taking full advantage of Jodianna’s surrendering posture. “Truth be told, I appreciate your care. It is very...endearing, to see you so.”

The heat inspired by her touch provided the underpinning to her compliment. Endearing? More like intriguing. And if it was anything that inspired enthusiasm in Josephine Montilyet, it was intriguing behavior by intriguing women. Jodianna had that going for her in spades. 

“Really?” Jodianna hummed, letting her hands fall and grasp Josephine’s sides right back, through the blanket she wore like a shapeless but elegant frock. “I am relieved to be deserving of your praise.”

Josephine pricked her nose with hers, smiling biting a bit on her bottom lip. It was so divine.

“Wait,” Jodianna muttered, shaking her head. “What happened to the frustrated woman I left back in bed?” 

In return, Josephine raised a brow and looked off, appearing to contemplate if ever so playfully. “Ah, I am not sure. Perhaps...she is still there, waiting for her sweet lover to return from her harrowing task. Maybe...she is far less clothed than she would be expected to. Maybe…” she drifted out of her hold, arms falling last from her as she backed away. Her hips swayed as she clutched the bedsheet to her body in strategic ways: tight around her torso, but loose and gathered as it fell off her shoulders further. Her brown skin glowing amidst the dew of dawn. 

All the while Jodianna was left standing, cold except from the blush seething around her nose and eyes. The woman knew how to send another woman simmering into oblivion within a finger snap.

“Josephine Montilyet…” she teased warmly, a hand on her hip as she followed slowly, “in my bed?”

Josephine smiled as she crossed the threshold into the room, shadows of the doorway draping up and over her frame. 

“I have heard rumors,” she replied as the sheet fell farther off of her. 

Before Jodianna could tease back, Josephine lost her cool, bursting into a heart laugh as she dropped the sheet to the floor and ran for it. Jodianna’s heart skipped a beat, watching her escape, suddenly breathless in the pursuit of her. Nothing and no one could stop her from going after her wherever she went. No mistake, no mishandling, no venture gone awry. 

Finally back down on earth, she could finish her thought. _She is amazing._

She burst into laughter, enjoining the sound of her joy with her own. And they returned to where they wanted to be, stumbling and silly, for what remained of the morning.


End file.
